New Year’s Beijing Style

Well it is now Wednesday and I can safely say that I am now recovered from the weekend. Sunday however was not pretty. Spent most of the afternoon curled up on the sofa unable to focus on whatever it was I was trying to watch. New Year’s eve started with drinks at Jaque’s apartment before heading for an excellent dinner at Cafe Sambal. Lot’s of goof Malaysian food to say farewell to 2005. We had planned to get to Ruud’s house party in time for midnight but after much back and forth with the group, I was out voted and it was decided to spend it in Bed Bar just up the street. Apparently there was concern over not getting across Beijing in time and seeing in the New Year en route in a xiao li (beijing cab) gan bei-ing (cheers) with the driver. Some people have no sense of adventure…. bah!

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New Year done and dusted, we hot-footed it over to Ruud’s penthouse apartment in Ocean Paradise. Things did not look good on our arrival when we met the police in the lift on the way up, but our fears were quickly dispelled once we got upstairs. Ruud and his entourage had done an excellent job of turning his enormous place into a venue to rival most night clubs. Excellent fun with lots of bubbles to keep us in the style to which we are accustomed :)

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Later as things were winding down, we headed on to Suzie Wong’s (with a quick detour for a whizz around Tango) where things may or may not have taken a turn for the worst. Suffice to say I found myself stumbling home after dawn. My name at that point escapes me….

All my photos from the evening can be seen here. Other photos at Ruud’s party were also taken Ruud, Denise and Jessie.

Posted in Beijing, China | 3 Comments

Upgrading to WordPress 2.0

I am in the process of upgrading to the new version of WordPress and the K2 theme that I use to layout the blog. Please bare with me, it should be done by tomorrow. If you are bored I recommend listening to some new music at www.pandora.com – this site is very cool.

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Marmite delivered globally!

MarmiteRecently I discovered I was running low on the great British institution that is Marmite. I did some some Googling and to my great surprise discovered that it is for sale on Amazon.com. Worldwide shipping! Brilliant!

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Bar Sign

Spotted on a sign outside a bar in Montana:

Liquor round the front. Poker round the back.

(Thanks Ivan.)

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Knightons Portrait

I was browsing the web earlier and somehow stumbled upon a drawing of the house I grew up in. It seems the new owners must have had it commissioned. Amazing what you can find on the Interweb.
Knightons, Knightons Lane, Dunsfold
UPDATE: My father spoke to the new owners and apparently the artist saw a picture of the house in the sunday times magazine and copied it. Explains why some of the details are wrong. They said they hadn’t planned on buying it – could have something to do with the fact that it’s actually not all that good. Interesting none the less…

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Thanksgiving

On Sunday I went to a Thanksgiving party at Tom’s house put on by Candice. It was a pretty relaxed afair with lots of good food, wine and Charlie spiced things up with his chocolate biscuits. Since the only american at the party was our host, it is perhaps a good question as to what we were all thankful for but then again the pilgrims were all europeans so, as they say in the new world, go figure. My camera was out of action but luckily Tom and Denise had theirs.

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Unbelievably Useful Firefox Tip

This one is definitely for Geeks only! For those of you who browse the Internet using Mozilla Firefox, I just discovered a really useful little tip. If have just visited a link and realise that the previous page was also interesting, middle-click the Back button and it will load the previous page in a new tab. Should save time in the long run. Probably.

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Trip to Sichuan over National Day Holiday

Last week, over the October holiday, Robbie and I flew to Sichuan for a week, where we met up with his cousin, Roger and girlfriend Eva who were spending a month backpacking around China. We visited some amazing places and it really reminded me how much fun you can have travelling around this country – something that my Beijing-fueled cynicsm had made me forget. It was also great to finally get to go to Sichuan which I had wanted to visit ever since I first arrived here. There were a lot a pics so I have split them over two photo streams:

  • Part 1 – Sichuan Opera, Pandas, Leshan & Emei Shan (01-04 October 2005)
  • Part 2 – Taoping (Qiang), Shangmeng (Jiarong Tibetan), Chengdu Teahouse (05-07 October 2005)
  • Robbie & Roger and friendsOlly taking a restEva tries out Traditional Tibetan Dress
    Continue reading

    Posted in China, Photos | 4 Comments

    Hei Long Tan by Land Rover

    After recovering from Mark’s birthday, Robbie and myself managed to talk Charles into driving us into the countryside on Sunday so we could escape the city and try out his new Land Rover. After lunch in the bagel restaurant in Shunyi we headed to Miyun county to a place called Hei Long Tan, long rocky gully full of rusty walkways, crystal clear water pools, waterfalls, caves, and a woman with a crossbow encouraging us to shoot fish at point-blank range…. Enjoy the pics.

    The Land RoverThe Little Mermaid

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    Mark Blick’s Birthday

    On Saturday we headed to Souk by the west gate of Chaoyang park for Mark’s Birthday. Dinner, sheesha and then off to Apperitivo for digestifs. Click here to view the pics.

    MelSt. John the Wise

    Posted in Beijing, China, Photos | 4 Comments